Chapter 2: Sam

I am almost finished with chapter 2. This is a bit of what I journaled as I read...

 In reading this chapter, I discovered that Sam was not who I pictured her to be.

 I had always imagined Sam (a.k.a. the Samaritan woman) as a loose woman who still had a bit of allure, a bit of mystery to her.

And yet, in a culture that considered divorce shameful, this woman had been discarded not once but 5 times. Five men, each a bit less honorable than the last, had taken her, used her, then publicly rejected her. She slides farther into her sin, and the gulf between she and her accusers grows ever wider.

I saw a modern-day Sam in the grocery store today. After listening in on my conversation with another woman, Sam began talking to me. "I have 3 kids and I'm pregnant with my 4th." I look at her and can't help wondering how many different men fathered her children. She looks older than her years, rough, wearing pajama pants and a hoodie. She talks to the man she is with in a nervous giggle, as if their relationship isn't secure...

And I see in her the face of the Samaritan woman. A women on the fringes of the society. Disdained by her community. Rejected by the upstanding religious men and their proper wives.

And Jesus had to go through Samaria. He was drawn to Sam as greatly as others were repelled by her. He sought her out as no one had ever sought her out.

To the rough, rejected, reviled soul, he offered Himself. Her brokenness led him to her. Her hurt was covered by the Healer.

I imagine a modern day retelling of this story...a story where Jesus had to go to Glenwood. When I, like the disciples, look askance at Jesus while he glories in his beloved daughter, while he ignores me and my self-righteousness and looks at this modern day Sam with eyes of love that break her. That change her...that speak of belonging, of her infinite worth...

I haven't finished this chapter yet, but I have been thinking about this story a lot. What does the love of the Saviour for the broken mean to you?